Video offers intriguing vision for bike-friendly Heights streets

This video (Link for which is here) was sent my way from Heights resident and avid bicyclist Kevin Chenevert. It presents an intriguing look at how several streets in New York City have been redesigned to accommodate cyclists.

On his Facebook page, Chenevert offered the following thoughts:

Very forward thinking commuting solution. My thought of an ideal place to try this would be along 19th street in the Heights. Combination of shopping, restaurants, parked cars, cyclists and traffic. It would then allow you to link to the Heights Blvd bike trail or MKT Hike and Bike trail.

Now, to be sure, the Heights is not New York City, and other than Heights Boulevard, it would be hard to see this happen on any other north-south thoroughfare through the neighborhood as both Yale and Studewood currently are too narrow (IMHO) to repurpose in this way.

However, I can easily imagine this happening on West 19th, as Chenevert suggests, as well as West and East 11th/Pecore and White Oak from Yale all the way to Stude Park. By making these east-west, primarily commercial streets more bicycle- and pedestrian-friendly, businesses along all of them can only benefit.

Far and away, the single greatest contribution to quality of life in the Greater Heights since I moved here in 1988 (even more than the proliferation of coffee places) has been the addition of the Nicholson/SP, Katy/MKT, Heights Boulevard and White Oak Bayou bike trails. Taken together, they have made the neighborhood a more enjoyable place to be, as committed bike lanes almost always do.

The only drawbacks to all of these is the need to share this space with cars, which can create dangerous situations for all concerned. Repurposing some Heights area streets along the lines of what the video outlines looks to this bike-riding Heights resident who works downtown to be an all-around win for everyone concerned.